Talk:Japan-France

I love this whole article, but the mere existence of the word "franime" is enough to make me wonder why it hasn't been featured. I mean, come on! Franime! That's hilarious! --Wehpudicontok--Welcome to Vaporstory! 03:43, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

It was nominated once and failed. It was my first article and it could stand with some major expansion, but I haven't had quite the inspiration to do it yet. Maybe at some point :) --monika 06:17, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

(ps - a few people I know swear the explanation of it is the best part.) --monika 06:19, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Very clever article Ms.M. Kudos! I especially enjoyed the first picture! Mightydandylion (talk) Fk 21:44, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Very good article, this really should be featured. --El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 11:59, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

It's about half-way through a rewrite that I've been too busy to finish, so maybe after that. -monika 17:25, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

OK, good luck, tell me when it's at pee review stage (if it's ok that I bagsy the review now, or am I too biased?) --El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 18:01, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I have no problem if you just go ahead and review it here. I can't promise that I'll make any changes right away since I'm really busy at work until at least September, but I'll definitely read everything and take it into account when I get back to work on it. Hell, it might inspire me to use the little free time I have to finish :) --monika 22:44, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Okey-dokey, I'll give it a go then :) (expect it some point in the next 2 days) --El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 22:51, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Ok here goes (edited to get rid of ridiculous numbers):

Humour:	9	Very funny, as a rule I support comedy that appeals to people in the know, rather than catering to any reader as a general laugh so, even though I don't get a lot of the (Japanese) cultural references, I assume it would be funny for a Japanophile. Combining the two diverse cultures usually works very well as a contrast, and the laughs are consistent and rhythm is good. There are some elements I'm not so keen on (like the elvish reference and the Nils Olav thing) as they seem a bit random, but that might just be my taste and I'm sure some would appreciate it. These are generally quickly redeemed by lines like the one about subtitles, which is a first class lol. Unfortunately I doubt it will become a featured article, but I'll explain this more in concept. The cinema section is also hilarious btw, without any flaws.
Concept:	7	Not a lot you can do here, the concept is what it is. To many the cross might seem a bit random, you might want to try and explain the actual link between the two countries (like I know there was a lot of Japanophilia in the late 19th Century in France, perhaps you could link this in) or just explain something about this so the reader can understand WHY you chose to link these two countries, but it's fine if that ruins the magic from your perspective, to be honest I'm not sure how you can explain this without ruining the illusion. An alternative is suggesting this country is a merger of the two nations set up by Francophile Japanese and Japanophile Frenchfolk. Also you may want to just trim the edges a little bit, but that's mainly just because I don't understand some of it and hence feel some of it pales in comparison to other sections.
Prose and formatting:	8.5	Flows nicely, no grammatical/spelling errors etc... The only thing that I would change is to move the History section above the Culture, since I think country pages work best if they imitate Wikipedia entries as much as possible. Other than that, no problems whatsoever.
Images:	9	Great work on the pictures - the flag, map, fresco and Napoleon pic are all very funny and professional looking. They add to the authentic feeling of the overall work, and I think authenticity and sharpness is something you really excel at here and should continue to focus on making this country appear as real as possible. Another couple of pictures MIGHT add to it, since essentially this is a visionary article, and much of the humour could come from actually seeing the hybrid results of two very visually-oriented cultures (anime/prints/cinema for Japan, art/cinema for France). They can both be very image conscious too, so you might want to try and include an image of a typical Jancais citizen. Alternatively, ignore what I'm saying, since you do already have a fair few pics, and just make that Hiroshige (or whoever it is, the fresco) bigger and more significant.
Miscellaneous:	8.5	Averaged. Nice choice of anthem btw, good cultural crossover. Debussy always strikes me as a bit of a Japanophile too, might want to reference Clair de Lune or La Mer in there? Just look for some more real-life crossovers and add some spin to them. Also possibly less history and more culture would be good, the history kind of feels a bit more random at times.
Final Score:	42	I really like this article, it's a good example of original premise being fulfilled in a humorous way. I would suggest trying to hint to why you chose to make this article (without being blatant obviously, just to avoid it seeming like a random experiment, because there is some obvious basis to it). Good luck!
Reviewer:	--El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 14:26, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually I reckon that this could easily be featured if the link was made clearer, or the premise made more plausible, and the name changed to something catchier. I mean you have "Jancais" and "Franime" already, I'm sure you could come up with a classier name for the article itself :) --El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 14:30, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Oh and, "Megaparis" is a reference to the Japanese pronunciation of "Megapolis"? That's hilarious :D --El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 14:34, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

heh. This article's been around long enough that there have been a few contributors including Bonaparte69, who did the history/war stuff (including the pic). I really like his contributions, but when I get there, I'll try to get it to sound like the rest while maintaining the content and spirit. --monika 20:08, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I also kind of like that the name "Japan-France" is so awkward - it might be that both "Japan" and "France" are not all that similar to the names of the countries in the local languages. Also, Megaparis started as a "Mega-" Japanese prefix joke, but that similarity wasn't unnoticed. The premise I'm not so sure can be improved by messing with. There simply exists this country with an impossible geographic location and the combined features of two existing countries. If I try to explain it, it loses some surrealism. This touch of surrealism provides foundation for the details. --monika 20:30, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, that's fair enough, I was just interested in trying to incorporate some kind of authenticity that might make it more likely to be featured, but I think the first and most important thing to do would be to work on the consistency and overall narrative flow (i.e. moving history up and the other suggestions I made there). Yeah it's just kind of clearer if the whole thing seems like its coming from the same narrator/imagination, otherwise it can lose its rhythm. --El Sid, the lazy one • parlez-vous franglais? 20:38, 3 August 2009 (UTC)